Clarkston novelist will share tips with aspiring writers Nov. 3

Special to the Oakland Press/JOETTE KUNSE
B. David Warner Speaking at Speaker Series, Saturday, Nov.3, 7 p.m.,Clarkston United Methodist Church, 6600 Waldon Road, Clarkston. Tickets $5 by calling the church 248 625 1600 or at the door.

Modern terrorists working in partnership with a Mexican drug cartel? Yes, at least they are in the mystery "Freeze Frame 2016" by B. David Warner.

Warner will discuss his novels and how to write mysteries as part of the Clarkston United Methodist Church Speaker series on Nov. 3.

Warner, a Clarkston resident, worked with a former counter-intelligence military officer to get a feel for modern international terrorism and how organizations are working together for their own gain and against the United States. Without giving away the plot, Warner says "cheap drugs and easy access to the United States is the symbiotic relationship between the groups in his novel."

"The book is especially timely as it is based around a third party candidate for president who is likely to be elected unless the heroine can stop him," he said.

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Warner wrote his first novel when he was in third grade.

"It had 13 chapters and the teacher typed it up and it fit on one page and gave it to all the students in the class," he said, adding he still likes to write in short chapters, much like James Patterson.

"I like to spike the interest at the end of the chapter so people will keep reading," said Warner. Warner says, "I like airport books, which have to catch your interest right away. In the first chapters of my books, I have a car chase in one and a mobster holding a main character at gunpoint in the other."

Some of the research for "Freeze Frame" was easy -- Warner used his career in advertising as the career of the main character in the book. Warner continues to work in advertising and communications while he writes. In his 40-year career, he has worked at such notables as Ross Roy and Campbell-Ewald agencies.

Warner's other book, "Dead Lock," is a historical mystery about the most guarded piece of real estate in the United States during World War II -- the Soo Locks. More than 7,300 United States troops were stationed at the locks because the majority of the iron ore used to make war implements passed through the locks and a Nazi bombing could have closed military manufacturing in the United States.

Warner, who says he loves northern Michigan, researched the occupation of Saulte Ste. Marie by the Army in 1942. He includes information on the huge barrage balloons, which were tethered at the locks to stop dive bombers and the hutments that housed five or six soldiers and their anti-aircraft guns.

"Dead Lock" begins in Detroit but heads north to the Upper Peninsula with lots of description of a 1940s road trip. The main character works at the Soo Evening News and Warner says he was able to interview a former employee who worked at the News in 1941.

Warner is working on his third novel, "Lady Killer," which is scheduled for publication in spring. The plot includes a serial killer, a sheriff's special investigator and a connection to the Oakland County child killings of 1976-77.